Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-10-15
TIE CRIMSON SCARF,

How old did you sayF'' asked the
commander ia met.
-Nincteen"
"A d the maa?"
n .Jlie older
e commander-in. chief pulled his
cigar at thoughtful intervals. The war
was by twenty-five years q thing OF the
past, but rs head OF q great CONNER
cial enterprise p military title still
clung to him from out Of his wal eX-
periepce, and he did not dislike it, for
some of his war memories appeared to
be his mos cherished mental tr. assures.
S, ne debated with his cigar owe the
two Young people whose sentimental
rashl cas- bad brought them into public
notice. aad ~ he dabated he was look
ing backward over Me diverse panora-
ma of Two decades of life, through the
rifted smoke clouds Of "A great rebellion
at a little drama that seemed almost a
dream, but which to him was, perhaps,
the best remembered incident of all the
five years fight. And when he told it.,
half musingly, the listeners did not
wonder. The ways Of fate are very
diverse, and it sometimes happens to
the least imaginative in the madding
crowd that a face which is locked into
only for = moment Is never forgotten
in all the length Of the years that fol-
low. Perhaps it was SO with the COM
mander-in-chief. Perhaps not. In any
event. nobody dared to ask.
..In the fail OF 1863 he began, 81
was stationed with a detachment at
Pant Rock, Ala. We were drawing on
the enemy for supplies; foraging, in
fact. Our crackers and hard tack we
got from Stevenson, bHt for fodder for
our horses and anything to add sump-
tuounhooN w Tx "pPC"i IA VI nv -
ing pan we had to depend on the coun-
try. For some weeks | bad sent out
the wagon train TO the east. the south
east and down the valley Of the Paint
Rock Creek. The only direc ion left
for investigation was the west, where
at "A distance of twenty-ope miles, was
Huntsville, shen the capital of northern
Alabama, which, up to the time of the
VAR, had been n wealthy, aristocratic
and fash enable city. Well, one pleas
ant morning sent the wagons across
the creek and followed them with a
guard of twenty men. 1t was reported
from time to time that the country
ahead of us was full of guerillas, but
we saw 30 sign Of them, and for two
months had no trouble whatever with
any foe.
.After crossing the creek the
wagons took a road which wound along
the foot of a spur at the Blue Ridge
mountains. which rose green, heavily
wooded and picturesque at our backs.
We passed several more ~clearlngs and
plantations. whose log houses were
filled with hot blooded and hot tenn
pered southern women, whose evident
desire to fay us with their tingernails
rather inlerfered with that sweet spirit
of hospitality for which the south is
famous. At a distance of seven miles
| halted the detachment at 6 cool but
sinister looking place in the road,
known to all the country round about
rs the Gap
THE Gap was the entrance to a
pass through n Of the outlying noun
tain spurs. 1t was a deep hollow,
heavily wooded. The dense growth of
to ,ering pines and AIRS grew close to
the roadside. The woody spaces were
so filed with underground and blocked
ny fallen trees that AS you peerod into
the dark recesses of the forest on either
side a hostile army might have been
sheltered there without your being able
to perceive a uutton. | remember the
looks Of the place, because the first
time | saw 1t it made me rather I'M
easy, and the last time | saw it but one,
came near staying there for
good, as did, in fact, some other
poor fellows who were not SO fortu-
nate.
"Well. after a rest we kept o., a1d
"A few miles further we came on a plan
tation of $50 acres. with "A large and
comfortable looking residrnc- near the
roadsi 'e. The wagons had reached
there long before us. They were be-
ing rapidly titled from a row of well
-tored corn-cribs at the back of tie
house. | mad just gotten off my horse
near the door when two girls came to-
ward me. aud if ! We're not telling this
story, gentlemen. | would honestly de-
clare that they were the two pr"ttlest
gisls | ever saw in my life.
'sThey were both tall and slemder.
with graceful and wnmanly figures.
They we're dressed in dark blue calico,
aud had no artificial aids to taeir fresh
Young beauty. Their faces were intel